'We protested 30 years ago and have no regrets'

The organiser of protests that made national headlines for 10 months in 1995 said she was proud of what her hometown achieved.

Maria Wilby grew concerned when she learned exporters wanted to use the Essex port of Brightlingsea to ferry livestock to Europe to be slaughtered – a practice that was banned last year.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with police on most days until exporters decided to stop using the port because of the delays they had faced.

"For a whole community to come together like that with a lot of different viewpoints, but all still objecting in principle to the trade of live animals, I think was exceptional," she said.

Many protesters, including Ms Wilby, were arrested between January and October 1995.

"There are still people I meet from all across the country who remember the protests and remember those images of what they call ordinary people – I think they're extraordinary people – objecting to cruelty," she said.

Natalie Third, then a young mum, joined the protests most days because she was "horrified at what was going to be happening in our town".

Now 56, she said: "I am a meat eater but it was the cruelty that was happening to these animals that literally made my heart sink.

"I remember the day the police were in riot gear and the majority of us protesters, myself included, were wearing Laura Ashley clothes.

"It still haunts me now. I can still see those animals in the lorries even now, 30 years on."

Her sister Hayley Third, 49, recalled being told she would be arrested if she sat in front of lorries trying to get to the town's harbour.

Gleny Goodman, 71, lived about 11 miles (17km) away in Colchester at the time, but cycled to Brightlingsea most days to support the protests, often sitting on the ground to block the lorries' route.

"It was something I wouldn't have normally thought I would do," she said.

"It was just an amazing time for people to come together to share their hatred of what was going on at the time."

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